AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

WW. My middle name is Helen. No offense taken. I am female though so I don't get many insults. Well not about Helen....

Names are funny. MrsM My nephew (12) wants to name everything and I don't let him. No telling what he'd come up with.
My Girls are all named after charmed characters and must start with P. Something I started when I thought I would only have three Hens. I have too many for that now so I had to move onto flowers, also starting with P. Lucky for me there are HEAPS of those.

Now that's funny.

johs, Lynette and Tom Scavo from Desperate Housewives also picked P names for their kids. I think having a theme makes it easier, especially with pets, since you can call them anything and are not bound by actual names.

New question. I got about 5kg of some chick feed stuff for the new hens (it looks like the stuff that goes on top of an apple crumble) - do I just give it to them as it is or am I supposed to mix it with something (water?) at this point?

Sounds like chick starter. Just give it to them as is.

At 10 w/o, once you've finished the chick starter move them onto pullet grower.

If Hedwig and for the moment I'll name the other pullet Hermes are 10 weeks old at present, would they be on chook starter/crumble or pullet grower? Did the breeder inform you what type of feed that they are on?

She did say something about it, but I forgot the details. I dont think I paid a lot of attention because I had seen different feeds at the pet store and knew there was feed for young hens before they go onto the laying pellet things.

The stuff she gave me is like crumble, definitley not like the laying pellets the older hens get. I think she said this stuff is medicated against some diseases, if that helps. She said I can feed the little hens this stuff until it runs out (I have about a months supply), and then she said to put them onto the laying pellets. I could be wrong, but I thought there was chick food (what I have) then some kind of food for 10-18w hens, and then the laying pellets. I am visiting the pet store today and planned to have a look at whats there.

The crumble versus the pellet is only to make it easier for the small chicks to fit in their tiny beaks. I'm only familiar with the Barastoc products so I can only speak for them but they have a crumble for chicks up to 8 weeks (I think) which contains a medication for coccidiosis, then they have a pullet grower, in a pellet form, with a different medication for cocci, that is recommended for birds aged 8-14 weeks, but apart from that I think the nutrition component is the same, ie. protein, fats, etc... After that they have layer pellets or grain etc... for the older birds, which has a different nutrient profile. I don't think it matters if there is some overlap in the age range between feeding crumble and pullet grower, only that the different medications offer different protections (I'm guessing). The only cautions are not to feed layer pellets too young as I understand they have too much calcium for the young birds, and don't feed the medicated feed to the older birds as there is a 2 week witholding period on consuming eggs.

Thanks wickedwings, you are always so helpful

I might grab them some pullet grower today. The older hens cant get to their food but I didnt realise they shouldnt have it (in regard to eggs) so thanks for mentioning that.